Scientific Clairvoyance
by Silent Scribe
Summary: Sesshomaru knows there is a striking similarity between Kagome and Rin, but what? And how? Meanwhile, Inuyasha told Kagome not to bring so many textbooks with her; does she listen? Well, she'll now wish she had.


_A/N: Set somewhere after Chapter 518 of the manga and the end of the series. Though you don't need too much background to enjoy a fic like this…and you really don't have to like biology either. _

**Scientific Clairvoyance**

Amber eyes tracked the schoolgirl as she heaved her enormous yellow backpack out of the well, slung it over one shoulder, and trudged off to the next village. But even the staggering burden didn't press the smile from her face. She was a strange young woman.

And, for once in a very long while, Sesshomaru didn't know how to place this new fixture in his domain. Inuyasha's woman was bold and naïve like any human girl her age, but she didn't display that natural fear of yokai or the unknown. Sesshomaru wasn't certain if this was a defect or an anomaly, but that trait, for all his curiosity it whetted, never aroused his suspicion. In a way he that made him shift uncomfortably, with time she had accessed his trust. Why else would he be so permissive?

Barely glancing to his side, he said resignedly, "You may go."

"Lady Kagome!" In a flash that left Jaken puffing after her, Rin scurried off to join the older girl. "Hi, how are you? Are you going to Lady Kaede's village? Can I come?"

As Kagome navigated through Rin's chirpy questions, the nearby, scrutinizing dog-demon pursed his lips.

_Perhaps that is it. _

The resemblance was uncanny, Sesshomaru decided. There was something similar about Rin and Inuyasha's female that he couldn't pierce his talon through. No, it went beyond their general good-nature – though that may have been as telling a sign as any. Something in their faces. Somehow the reincarnated priestess managed to look like a matured version of his child; but how?

The daiyokai stalked through the shadows, claws working the grooves in Bakusaiga's hilt. Wanting to reach their destination first, he hastened his pace. This matter required further investigation.

.

"More books?" Inuyasha gaped. "Are you insane? You can't possibly read all a' those in the time we spend searching for the Jewel."

Easily ignoring the hanyo's rant as he strutted out of the hut, Kagome smiled warmly at Rin. "Here you go. Just take good care of it, okay?"

"You can count on me!" Rin beamed, the little ponytail on her head bobbing with each nod. "Look, Master Jaken! We get to read another new story tonight!"

The imp placed his staff between himself and the pressing cover of the picture book. "Marvelous," he drawled sarcastically, shooting Kagome a glare. That twit didn't have to read to an insistent brat the same boring tale three times over each night.

After few more friendly exchanges – on girls' behalves, anyway – Kagome bid little Rin a warm farewell.

"All right," the young woman smiled appreciatively at the room around her. "Quiet evening, cozy fire, and" – she cracked open a math book – "study material!"

But, after fifteen minutes of staring at equations that didn't make any more sense than a three headed monster, Kagome's blazing gusto flickered to a dying ember. "Maybe a change of subject would be more productive." She looked around at the spread of textbooks before her. "How about some bio?"

She rummaged for it in her backpack, then remembered that her biology book was one of the materials she'd left behind for later. Going to the corner of the hut that was stacked with texts, notebooks and school surplus, Kagome dug through the stash. Maybe she overlooked it.

_Nope, not there._

She spun around, marched up and down along each wall. When she found herself calling out for the book like a lost dog, Kagome's anxiety doubled.

_Where is it? _

Taking a deep breath, she mentally replayed the afternoon. She remembered setting the bio book down yesterday, right before she left and considering that none of the villagers, save an occasional glance from Kaede or Miroku, had ever taken an interest in her "magics," there was slim chance it had been lifted.

_Let's see, Rin and Jaken dropped by and…_

A cold shiver ran straight down her spine. A simple villager probably wouldn't take interest in book, but an educated nobleman might.

_And only one of those drifts by here…Oh, no…_

Kagome blanched at the thought of a modern book in Sesshomaru's hands. God knew he'd actually sit down, read it, and rake the information for all it was worth.

Texts scattered before her, Kagome feverishly sort through them, trying to figure out which had caught the Western Lord's fancy. Hopefully nothing on politics or history.

Tracking the neurotic scent, Inuyasha stepped into the room. He scanned the mess once and sighed a drawn out, "Now whaaat?"

_I can't tell him Sesshomaru took a book, he'll have a cow_. "Uh, nothing," Kagome hedged. "I seem to have misplaced a textbook." _And a ream of paper_, she was coming to realize.

"Tch, I told you not to bring all that crap," Inuyasha snorted. "You were bound to lose something. Hope it wasn't too important." Sick of the girl's total lack of priorities, Inuyasha swept out of the room.

Kagome sighed in some relief. Chances were good that Rin would return soon to exchange her little storybook for another. Now all she had to do was wait.

Kagome groaned. Of course, the more time that passed only meant an extended read for Sesshomaru.

_If his physical speed can leave an afterimage, what's his mental processing like?_

Head in knees, Kagome really, really didn't want to know.

.

"Rin," Kagome said sweetly, her mood lightened by the fact that the child came back promptly the next day; the grouchy imp beside her must have had something to do with it. "Will you take me with to visit Lord Sesshomaru?"

The little girl grinned upward, taking Kagome by the hand. "Of course, let's go!"

As expected, Sesshomaru was not very far off. It was a small trek through the first edge of the forest and only a slightly longer one through Jaken's protests for his master's privacy. None of it was troublesome.

"Lord Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked politely and trying not to giggle.

The daiyokai's position was one unusually different from his typically dignified stations. Seated cross-legged on Ah-Un's saddle, he poured over pages of notes. The comparison was absurd, but he looked remarkably like Kagome pulling an all-nighter – just without the bags under his eyes and not one strand of hair out of place. And, resting snuggly on his lap, sat the biology textbook. Sesshomaru didn't look up.

Before she could wonder if clearing her throat for attention would be out of line, Sesshomaru's head snapped up to stare directly at Kagome.

"You brought her. Very good, Rin," he said passively, sliding from his perch to collect some of the notes that had fallen to the ground.

_Brought me?_ "Actually, I came for my, uh…" Kagome could feel herself growing smaller in the demon's advancing presence. She forged ahead. "I came for my book, Lord Sesshomaru."

"Huh." Golden eyes fixed on her studiously, blinking freely and missing nothing. Sesshomaru still cradled the biology book close and gripped the notes on top of it. Inky brush in the other hand, he chewed the end between his teeth.

"Be still."

The harsh whisper froze everyone in place as Sesshomaru inched closer. Although she was positive he wasn't going to hurt her, Kagome squirmed as the daiyokai invaded her personal space with…his nose.

Sesshomaru had enough of a predatory air that most people could barely stand, and feeling that scalding breath so near her throat made Kagome's nerve break after three long seconds.

"All right, that's enough!" Trying to elbow him away, the dog-demon glided backward out of range in one smooth motion. While his mane and clothes still settled around him, Sesshomaru took a second to jot some more observations on his notes.

"Rin," he droned.

"Yes, m'lord!" No hesitation, just pure innocent obedience.

Sesshomaru made another note, before ordering again for her pause.

Still trying to rub away the goosebumps, Kagome watched as Inuyasha's brother diligently scented the top of his ward's head. Rin laughed as her hair rose in time with each sniff. Again another note.

"He's been doing that for the past day."

Kagome looked over her shoulder and noticed Kohaku approaching with a string of freshly caught fish. He stood beside her and sighed, "I was yesterday's subject."

Jittery and nervous, Kagome suppressed the urge to laugh hysterically. "Do you know what he's writing?"

The young taijiya shrugged. "Just a bunch of weird symbols with boxes and squares."

Kagome blinked. Boxes and squares? "Punnet squares?"

"I dunno." Kohaku moseyed over to the campfire Jaken had going and started spearing the fish to cook.

"Jaken."

The little imp hustled to his master's side, but before he could utter a complacent "Yes, m'lord?" the huge biology book was carelessly dropped on his head.

"Return it."

Pity moving her legs, Kagome met Jaken halfway and hoisted the book from his hunching back. Looking up at Sesshomaru, the young miko addressed him with the sharp courtesy that bored on scorn. "Next time, Lord Sesshomaru, I would appreciate it if you told me before borrowing something of mine."

"Hnn," the daiyokai hummed in the infuriating manner that meant everything and nothing at all.

Reunited with her book, Kagome clutched the binding tighter for support. "What did you need it for anyway?"

Jaken growled indignantly. "My lord owes you no—"

"Answers." Sesshomaru finished a final column of script and tucked the single page between his armor and clothes, just before he tossed all the other sheets to the dirt. Then, long legs stretching, the daiyokai slid off Ah-Un to slip into the forest, arrogantly leaving the scattered notes for Kagome's and anyone else's inspection. He had what he wanted and had no further use for the material.

Bio book in cradled in the bend of her arm, Kagome glared daggers into Sesshomaru's back; all this time and in some ways he hadn't changed at all. She wasn't too sure if she wanted to demean herself and read the studies, no matter how much curiosity urged her to.

But Rin was already turning an ink-drenched page this way and that, trying to make heads or tails of it, while Kohaku and Jaken busily collected the rest.

Kagome finally caved when she noticed everyone but her reading Sesshomaru's extensive study. Kohaku smirked and handed her a cluster. "Check this out."

Not sure whether to laugh or scream, Kagome gaped at a finely detailed sketch of her face on one half of the paper and Rin's on the other. A few more pages and she found herself being compared to Kohaku. Here and there on other loose sheets were details of her chin, jaw, eyes, nose, even the set of her shoulders compared to the children's. It was unnerving, to say the least; she never thought Sesshomaru could be so consumed with a theory.

_But it is like him to be thorough._

A scowl still tugging at the corners of his beak, Jaken reluctantly scooted beside Kagome and handed over his stack of notes. "So human," he grumbled awkwardly, "what is the significance of the many boxes on the page?"

Immediately, Kagome noticed the enumeration of each page and saw that they pieced together to form an odd family tree of sorts. Sesshomaru had left strange swirls beside the punnet squares where he must have been improvising or guessing. These several pages were all solely under the label of scent.

_Now there's something modern genetics hasn't covered. _

She riffled through the other pages; whole charts turned up on everything the illustrations referenced; from gait to tilt in head, Sesshomaru must have been literally studying them from head to toe.

But if the eerie attention to detail had raised the hairs at the nape of Kagome's neck, the final page made her want to jump back down the well and read a complete background on the Higurashi family - preferably with a glass of water handy.

_This is too weird._

Kagome remembered how the Great Dog General specifically bequeathed each blade to his sons, the swords that had since seemed to control their destinies. At first, the reincarnated priestess believed he was an exceptionally wise father, but later noticed how the foresight seemed to stretch beyond that, insinuating outside will into their ordinary lives. Of course, Kagome had also thought the power may have been unique to only the Inu no Taisho, that it was a talent that couldn't necessarily be inherited. Again, she was proved wrong.

Right before her, for all the logic involved in his process, the concluding notion Sesshomaru had written out bordered on pure clairvoyance.

_If it's to be believed._

Jaken and Kohaku stepped forward and she noticed how the boy stroked his chin just like Gramps did when he was interested.

"So what's it all mean, Lady Kagome?" Rin asked.

Now acutely self-conscious of how she tilted her head at the exact same angle as Rin's – _and I'm also smiling like an idiot while I do it_ – Kagome neurotically chuckled. "Sesshomaru's good."

.

_A/N: I guess writing "Between Brothers" ended up giving me more than just one idea. The fact that biology haunts me years after I've taken the course points to academic scarring (though I never found it particularly difficult – maybe it's the just the new start of a fresh school year)._

_But at least I'll never have to question my family tree; I know who I resemble most (and this should have been posted yesterday) – Happy Birthday, Father!_ :)


End file.
